You know them well. They are your friends, your family, your co-workers. Your cousin went to Europe. She was there 10 days and posted every single footstep she took through Italy on Social Media. Your co-worker took a week’s trip to Paris and every photo she posted (and there were many) had her face in the foreground. Your neighbor just returned from a trip to London. “How was it?” you ask. His response? “Great!” You got no further information. These people took trips to exotic lands. But did they really experience their destinations? How do you go about creating an authentic travel experience?
Travel is best experienced slowly, travelling on foot through quaint British country towns, enjoying a pint at the local pub while listening to colorful locals tell tall tales of their latest fishing trips. It’s watching your kids play soccer with a group of Italian children in the shadow of the Roman Coliseum. It’s taking communion in a local church. It’s finding that off-the beaten-path tapas bar tucked away down a quiet street in Madrid. It’s a picnic while watching the sun set behind the Sydney Harbor Bridge.
“That sounds great!” You say. So how do you transform your dream trip into an authentic travel experience? There are many ways to turn a 10-day adventure into a truly memorable experience. All you need is a destination. The question is, what far flung destination has captured your imagination?
For this series we will focus on Europe. Here’s what you are not going to do:
- Plan a 10-day trip that takes you to London, Paris, Rome, Madrid, Lisbon, and Amsterdam
- Stay in the big US hotel chain hotel that offers the US breakfast
- Go on a pre-packaged tour with 20 other American Tourists
- Go only to the places you’ve seen in photos on Instagram
Do that and I guarantee that while you will return boasting you “went to London,” you can’t remember anything special about it.
Instead, we will choose a single destination city. Let’s choose London. Now, book a local bed and breakfast or Airbnb as close to the tourist center of town without mortgaging a house. Since I love the theatre, I’d choose the area around Soho where most of the stage shows are held. Make sure your lodging is close to a tube station. That will allow you access to the entire city.
Next, lay out a 10-day itinerary. We will discuss this in more detail in our next post. For now, take a piece of paper, open your favorite travel site, and make a list of every single church, museum, theatre show, restaurant, and tourist site you want to visit. This list ideally should keep you busy for a month. It’s London. It’s a big city after all.
Next, what things in the local countryside are on your list? Stonehenge and Salisbury are favorites. So is Bath. Maybe a day trip to wander the courtyards of Oxford is in order. What about a day at the beach? Maybe you’re a King Arthur nut and you MUST see Glastonbury. You absolutely must straddle the Greenwich Meridian. Don’t worry about how you’re going to get there. Just make the list.
The next job, and this will be the most difficult, trim the list. You are not going to see everything on your list unless you move to London. Look at it this way. How long have you lived in your current city? Have you seen everything there? I’ve lived in Los Angeles for most of my life and there are whole parts of town I have never ventured through and museums I have never experienced.
We will discuss how to trim the list and organize your sightseeing plans, allowing you to maximize your trip itinerary while allowing time to really enjoy London. For now, just dream! And #goexplore
